Hello, I'm Not Broken
by Kaori Koriryu
Summary: She was no longer a cat of ShadowClan. To her, the Dark Forest was where she had always belonged- her family. She claims they have mended her wounds better than any medicine cat, but also claims she was never broken in the first place. One-shot.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Warriors.**

Hello, I'm Not Broken

The small she-cat curled up in her nest twitched, frowning deeply in her sleep. As the sun rose over the horizon, her amber eyes opened, and she sat up, her chest heaving in an effort to breath.

"Rosepaw," she looked up at the sound of her name, "are you awake?"

"Yes, I am." She looked suddenly cross as she stood up, hiding her left side from the black and gray-patched tom.

"Let's go train, then." He flicked his tail at the apprentice.

Rosepaw bristled. "No thank you," she spat, brushing out past him and limping away as quickly as possible in the dawn light. She paid no heed to the tom's calling for her to come back, instead choosing to keep running. There was no way she would let the medicine cat near her, the StarClan-loving fool, but as soon as Nightfang saw her injuries, he was sure to send her to the medicine cat for healing.

_I'm fine, though! I've always taken care of myself! Goldstar is there for me now, though. She's teaching me how to take even better care of myself. _

The small sandy she-cat smiled, almost fondly, at the thought of her Dark Forest mentor. She stopped as she reached a rock and hopped onto it with strong legs, strengthened by the tree-climbing training she did with Goldstar, which was unusual for a ShadowClan cat. "Better to be prepared," Goldstar would always tell her cautiously.

Rosepaw's sandpaper tongue traveled over her wound. Her left side was clawed deeply, but she didn't care. There were several scars on her pelt, some more recent than others. She had learned how to take care of herself.

She stood after cleaning all the blood away, heading for her secret stash of marigold and cobwebs. She knew it was only a matter of time before the medicine cat, Stormflower, found the stash, but until then, she knew where it was and good places to find more.

After covering her wounds, she stretched and rolled onto her back, wondering if she should perhaps hunt today, or maybe practice tree-climbing for Goldstar. Then she realized that if she didn't at least pretend to train with Nightfang, he would suspect something come her assessments, when she would be able to do everything he asked. Her cunning mind quickly came up with an explaination. She could always tell him that she had trained on her own, watching the other apprentices during their training sessions and copying and perfecting the moves on by herself.

The apprentice sighed to herself. She would ask Goldstar about this tonight, but for now she decided it was probably best if she just trained.

Resigned to the fact, Rosepaw sighed and began trudging back to the ShadowClan camp. There would be time enough to sneak away later. For now, she would have to face her daylight mentor until night fell, when she would once more belong to the Dark Forest.

"Rosepaw, there you are!" Her mentor's scolding voice greeted her, and she drew back, crouching low to the ground submissively, forcing herself to give up her pride in order to keep her cover on her nights spent in the Dark Forest, training for what Goldstar said would be their redeeming battle.

"Nightfang, don't be so harsh." A young warrior, Darkpool, slid up to the two gracefully, holding her head high. Her green eyes met Rosepaw's amber in a knowing way, and the small she-cat relaxed, sitting up but still not meeting her mentor's eyes. Darkpool was one of her only "friends" that she knew of so far; another ShadowClan warrior training with her. She could pretend she was the same as every other ShadowClan cat, while Rosepaw had a harder time with that.

"I'm not the one that keeps running away from my responsibilities!" Nightfang protested, narrowing his gaze at Rosepaw. "Are you ready to train, then?"

Rosepaw looked at her paws, then slowly nodded. "I'll come, too," Darkpool said quickly, and Rosepaw could hear the teasing smile in her voice as she added, "since I don't want you to glare your apprentice to death."

"I'm not!" Nightfang objected, shaking his head. He sighed and padded up to the smaller cat, flicking her shoulder good-naturedly with his tail. "Come on, let's go."

She got up and made to follow him from the camp, trailing behind. Darkpool quickly joined her, suggesting to Nightfang, "How about just hunting for today? Rosepaw looks tired." Her mentor had still failed to notice the cobwebs clinging to her side, though that would surely change if they were to train in battle. However, Darkpool had noticed almost as soon as she began walking beside the younger she-cat.

Rosepaw gave the dark gray tabby a grateful look. She returned it with a friendly, almost motherly smile, and Rosepaw wanted to cringe, but held back the urge. Never had she had a real parent, her father always cold, short-tempered, and cruel, made worse by his extraordinary size and strength, and she was told that her mother was a small, kind-hearted she-cat, though she had died giving birth to Rosepaw. She had gotten the worst of each parent, her mother's small stature and her father's short temper. She always blamed her parents, and ever since, had only allowed herself to feel close to a certain few cats. Goldstar, for example, was like a mother to her.

"Fine. Darkpool, you can go hunting over there, while I show Rosepaw how to catch frogs, since she has hardly trained with me since she was apprenticed." Nightfang gave her a pointed look, and this time she did cringe, even though it was now fake.

"Sure," Darkpool said, faking sarcasm with an amused smile, "I can come along with you only to be ditched at the first opportunity." With a chuckle, she padded away.

Once she was gone, the gray and black tom began leading Rosepaw away, towards the marshy part of the territory.

She slunk after him, always staying in the shadows, avoiding any light coming through the trees. She hated light now. She didn't want to be caught in it.

Suddenly her mentor whirled on her, and she jumped back, resisted the urge to lunge at him with claws unsheathed, as she would if this was Goldstar.

"Where did you get those wounds?" he demanded, and Rosepaw's eyes widened, realizing she was wrong; he had noticed. "And how did they get treated without you going to the medicine den?" Suspicion lurked in his eyes, and Rosepaw felt smaller than she was. Somehow, she felt bad for everything wrong she had ever done, and another realization came over her. She had allowed herself to grow attached to Nightfang without knowing it, otherwise, she wouldn't have even come back to train. She respected him, though she didn't want to acknowledge the idea, it was so distasteful to her.

Wasn't she better than this? She should just glare and walk away, but no, then Nightfang would know for sure something was up.

"I was out late last night, training," she finally mumbled, bowing her head submissively. "It was kinda hard to see, so I got caught in some brambles near the border outside the territories, and they cut my side."

She heard her mentor heave a sigh, and heavy pawsteps traveled toward her. She shivered as his nose touched her cheek, which was set with one of her oldest Dark Forest scars. "And these? Don't think I have noticed, Rosepaw. I didn't want to say anything, hoping this would stop, whatever it is. I've heard about something similar, but I hoped dearly that it wasn't true."

Rosepaw's heart stopped, her mind filling with dread, as Nightfang stepped away from her. "This happened to a lot of warriors before the last Great Battle, didn't it?"

"Yes," the sandy she-cat blurted without thinking, remembering the answer clearly. The older, almost-faded Dark Forest warriors remembered the battle and passed on the knowledge of it to the newer members of the evil place, including Rosepaw, the prized student of Goldstar, the current Dark Forest leader.

"Rosepaw..." She looked up to see her mentor's amber eyes filled with grief as he slowly shook his head at her. "Why would you do this?"

"Because I've never felt useful to my Clan until Goldstar took me in!" Rosepaw exclaimed, then instantly turned away from him.

She felt him settle beside her, and could feel his unease. "I won't bite until the battle," she mumbled into her paws, "but only if you promise to keep it a secret and that you'll come with me to the Dark Forest, just to make sure."

There was but a moment's hesitation, then: "I'll come. To protect you."

"You'll be the one needing protection," Rosepaw warned him darkly, her amber eyes shadowed, partially by guilt, partially by unconcealed hatred of the world in general.

"Still," he mumbled, then fell silent.

There was a moment's pause, then he spoke again. "What broke you like this, to think you had to join the Dark Forest to be helpful?"

Rosepaw stiffened. "Nightfang, apparently you don't know me, so I'll introduce myself." She leveled her amber eyes at him. "Hello, my name is Rosepaw, and I'm not broken."

* * *

Proudly, she strutted about camp; Rosethorn, the brave warrior, the apparent hero of her Clan. The one who, at the very last minute, betrayed all the Dark Forest's secrets to her Clan, giving them and the others just enough time to prepare, but only just barely.

She looked over the camp, her chest puffed out. She remembered feeling the deputy's scruff in her teeth, the lifeblood filling her mouth, the snap of the neck bone. But that was the _old_ deputy, and Rosethorn was deputy now. All according to the Dark Forest's plan. Already, most of ShadowClan had come over to them. Now all Rosethorn was waiting for to become leader was the current leader's mate to do the Dark Forest's dirty work; Darkpool.

Rosethorn suddenly pricked her ears, seeing Darkpool leave the camp with the leader, Fangstar. She smiled to herself. Yes, ShadowClan would belong to her, and in connection, the Dark Forest. Soon all the Clans would bow to them!

She then grinned coldly, thinking to herself, _Hello, my new name is Rosestar, and I've never been broken, only mended and raised higher than the rest. _

**Based loosely on an RP (just for Rosepaw/thorn, the main character, though) and the song _Hello_ by Evanescence. Hope you enjoyed. **

**~Kaori**


End file.
